Suspected Gunman In Triple Huntersville Homicide Is Dead: HPD

HUNTERSVILLE, NC — A suspected gunman believed responsible for a string of homicides at a Huntersville mobile home park earlier this week died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the Huntersville Police Department said Friday.

Police say three men were shot to death in different locations late Monday, May 31, and identified the suspect they say is behind the homicides as Michael Jacob Matocha, 21, of Huntersville.

According to a police account, HPD officers were called to the mobile home park in the 17500 block of Caldwell Station Road shortly before 3 p.m., June 1, after a family member found the first victim in a home in the community.

The victim, who was identified as 58-year-old Michael Eugene Elliott, had been shot multiple times.

The next day, on June 2, investigators located a second homicide victim with multiple gunshot and stab wounds in a wooded area about 200 yards behind the mobile home park. Police identified the victim, who was also a park resident, as 26-year-old Kendrick Logan Knight.

Thursday, officers conducted a welfare check at one of the homes in the mobile home park after the homeowner had reportedly not been seen in several days. Inside the home, officers found a third victim, identified as Philip Daryl Jewell, 41.

Also inside Jewell's home was the body of Matocha, who was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.

Police say they continue to search for a motive behind the slayings. Matocha and Knight — the second victim — were friends, but police don't believe the suspect was familiar with either Elliott or Jewell.

HPD said anyone with information about the suspect or the incidents is asked to call the police department at 704-464-5400, or North Mecklenburg Crime Stoppers at 704-896-7867.